Super Mario Party

- Reviewed on Switch -

Super Mario Party released on October 5th, 2018. 

The Mario Party series is definitely one of my favorite Nintendo series of all time, combining my favorite Mario characters with fun maps (boards), minigames, and surprises.

Coined the Friendship Ender by the community it holds, Mario Party is a must play for Mario fans and luckily Nintendo has released many Mario Party games for pretty much every console they have produced, past and present. 

For the Nintendo Switch, we got Super Mario Party, a game that truly focuses on the Nintendo Switch itself and really shows off the new specs of the console (at least for its time).

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

As the eleventh (official) installment in the Mario Party series, Super Mario Party continues the beloved tradition of minigames, stars, dice, boards, and a plethora of characters to play as. 

Along with 20 playable characters (four of the 20 being unlockable characters), Super Mario Party also has plenty of different game modes, some making their debut in Super Mario Party. 

These game modes include...

    - Traditional Party Mode
    - Partner Party
    - River Survival
    - Sound Stage(s)
    - Toad's Rec Room
    - Sticker(s) Mode
    - Challenge Mode
    - Minigame Mode

Going back to the playable characters, you are pretty much forced to play these game modes in their entirety to unlock these four characters which I feel is a little bit unfair if you really want Donkey Kong for example but don't want to play these other game modes. 

Speaking of playable characters, Super Mario Party has probably my favorite roster of characters to choose from, yes, they got rid of some previous characters like Toad and Birdo, but the new characters such as Monty Mole and Rosalina make this roster very diverse and fun to play with! 

The roster consists of...

    - Mario
    - Luigi
    - Peach
    - Daisy
    - Wario
    - Waluigi
    - Yoshi
    - Rosalina
    - Donkey Kong
    - Diddy Kong
    - Bowser
    - Goomba
    - Shy Guy
    - Koopa
    - Monty Mole
    - Bowser Jr.
    - Boo
    - Hammer Bro
    - Dry Bones
    - Pom Pom

Along with each character comes a special dice block (along with the normal 1-6 dice) tailored to each character.

For example, Daisy will have the normal 1-6 dice block (like everyone else) but she will also have her own special dice with a certain number pattern, hers being all 3s and 4s. 

This new feature of specialized dice blocks is something I really enjoyed and due to this new mechanic, every party game gives every player their own advantage and disadvantage.

For Party mode, which is the most popular mode everyone will most likely play, you only get 3 boards to choose from and there is only 1 board to unlock. It bothers me that previous Mario Party titles had more boards to offer on less powerful consoles like the GameCube and Wii. 

Don't get me wrong, the boards on Super Mario Party are absolutely gorgeous (graphics wise) but I do believe they could have made more boards, or even DLC for this game but it seems after release back in 2018, there has been no more attention to this entry in the series almost 3 years later (as of writing this blog post). 

The four boards in Super Mario Party are...

    - Whomp's Domino Ruins
    - King Bob-omb's Powderkeg Mine
    - Megafruit Paradise
    - Kamek's Tantalizing Tower

Party mode isn't the only Party mode in Super Mario Party, Partner Party is when you get to play with a teammate (CPU or Human) and move around the map (boards) to collect items, coins, stars, buddies, etc. 

The boards for Partner Party are the same as the regular solo Party boards but changed, layout wise, to fit the criteria of Partner Party. 

The Partner Party boards are named...

    - Domino Ruins Treasure Hunt
    - Gold Rush Mine
    - Watermelon Walkabout
    - Tantalizing Tower Toys

After playing a whole game of Party Mode or Minigame Mode or any mode as a matter of fact, you get these points called Party Points and you can use these points to buy music, tips, stickers, etc. 

The stickers are used for making pictures that you can save to your Nintendo Switch gallery. 

It is fun and all to collect these unlockables but I found that once you collect all of them, the game feels very washed up and boring (if you're alone playing this game).

One thing the Mario Party series is most famous for, is their enormous amount of Minigames they come up with in development! 

The minigames are great and all, but I again did not feel the spark like I have with previous Mario Party entries. Sometimes as I play these minigames I feel like they were just made to show off the Nintendo Switch features instead of making a fun minigame. One minigame was simply just a quiz!

When you see the title Super Mario Party you think this entry will be the ultimate showcase of what made the Mario Party series famous right? Well in my opinion they did not perform well on this task. 

Yes, this game had so much content, but the lack of updates, boards, and overall attention to this game made me feel like once I finished unlocking everything, there was absolutely nothing left to do. 

I do come back once and a while to play this game but after one party mode game, I already get tired, something I never did with previous Mario Party games. 

Pros: 

    - Amazing Graphics
    - Keeps with Traditions
    - Amazing Diverse Roster
    - Special Dice Blocks
    - Extra Game Modes

Cons:

    - Small Amount of Boards
    - Boring Minigames
    - No DLC (Updates)
    - Bad Longevity (Single Player Wise)

My Rating for Super Mario Party (on Switch):

3 / 5


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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.



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